A different ending
by OnePirateWolf96
Summary: Like the title says, a bit of a different ending to Pikmin 3, as well as a bit more after that. Mostly about Alph and Olimar, with some Brittany and Louie, and a Little Charlie.
1. Chapter 1

**Well, this is a slightly different take on the Pikmin 3 final battle and ending. Things don't really work like they do in the game, but bear with me.**

 **I hope you'll enjoy it, so please tell me what you think!**

The escape from the Golden life form

Alph was running for his life, Brittany and Charlie right behind him. The pikmin were running behind them, as fast as their tiny legs could carry them, carrying the still unconscious Olimar. The mysterious lifeform was still following them, and even though he could not see it or hear it, Alph could imagine it crawling after them, fully intent on crushing them and taking Olimar, starving him to death. The thought made him run even faster, if possible. They were out of the cave with the narrow hallways, and out on the desert. Just a little longer to the ship, and they would be safe.

The golden lifeform burst out of the three, its sightless eyes still set on Olimar. It threw itself toward them, intending to take them all out in one move. Alph managed to avoid it by rolling to the side, the pikmin following his lead. Brittany and Charlie weren't so lucky, and got knocked unconscious, coming to a stop quite a distance from Alph, in the opposite direction of where the ship was.

Before Alph had time to think any further about the situation, the lifeform attacked again, managing this time to hit Alph and the pikmin carrying Olimar. Alph was sent skidding several feet away, Olimar and some pikmin landing some feet in front of him. Now he was staring to panic, as his friends were unconscious, the pikmin were scattered and his whistle had broken when the creature hi him, so he couldn't even command the pikmin anymore.

The lifeform was slowly approaching them, as if sensing Alph could do nothing to stop it from taking what it wanted. Then Olimar started waking up.

The Hocotatian was somewhat disoriented and confused to find himself outside the three, rather than inside it. His back was facing the strange lifeform, so he didn't see it until he turned around. He seemed to be in shock at first, just standing there staring at the thing. Then he looked at Alph, at Brittany and Charlie, at the pikmin scattered around, and then back at the golden creature. Connecting everything together. Then he snapped into action.

With two sharp whistles, he took command of the pikmin, gathering them and readying them to fight. He seemed to not quite know what to do with the winged and the rock pikmin, but seemed more than familiar with the red, blue and yellow ones. He split them up according to colour, then sent the winged ones to help Brittany and Charlie to a safer place, so they wouldn't get in the way as he prepared to take on the massive creature that had held him prisoner for a while now.

"Go help your friends," he even instructed Alph, who saw no other opinion, but do as he said, considering he would be no help without his whistle. He hurried over to where the winged pikmin had brought Brittany and Charlie. Luckily, they both seemed to be at least mostly unharmed, just unconscious. His attention went back to Olimar, who was now fighting the golden lifeform.

He seemed to have figured out the rock pikmin, but still stuck mostly to the other three kinds. When the yellows were distracting the creature by hitting it in the back, he was tossing reds on top of it, and when it turned its attention to the reds, he was already on its other side with the rocks, ready to damage it even more. When it started using elemental attacks, he wasted no time switching out pikmin for those that could withstand whichever element it was using, and getting the others to safety. It was going so smoothly, it hade Alph think about how many different kinds of enemies Olimar had fought on some other trip to this planet, and if he had fought many other multi-elemental enemies. The fight had now been going on for a while and only four pikmin had been lost. Alph couldn't help but wonder how many pikmin he would've lost by this point, after which he cringed. It probably wouldn't have been pretty.

"What happened?" Oh, Brittany had woken up. Alph was right next to her in the blink of an eye. She was looking around, somewhat confused over what had happened.

"You got knocked out by the mysterious lifeform," Alph explained. "Olimar is fighting it right now."

"As a fellow explorer and a fellow captain I am certain he will not let the enemy best him!" Apparently, Charlie was up, too. He seemed no worse of than Brittany, which was a good thing. Alph didn't think he would've been able to move him to the ship, even with Brittany's help.

"Look at Olimar!" Brittany had been following the battle between Olimar and the lifeform and was also the first to notice it was starting to end. The lifeform had been shrinking steadily when parts of it were destroyed, and now there was no more than a small puddle left. Olimar was also heading toward the trio. He was carrying a red leaf pikmin with a tear in the leaf on its head and what seemed to be an injured leg.

"I think we better get going before that thing recovers," he told them, not giving them a chance to answer before continuing on to where he had noticed the ship was. Behind him the pikmin were marching in a single file line.

Soon they reached the ship, and let the pikmin back into their onion, aside from the one injured Olimar was still carrying with him.

"Maybe introductions would be good about now," Olimar said, looking at the trio who had saved him. Alph hadn't paid attention to it before, but Olimar, like Louie, had a surprisingly deep voice. "I'm Olimar, Captain of the S.S. Dolphin. It's nice to meet you. And, thank you for saving me."

"I'm Charlie," Charlie started by introducing himself. "I'm Captain of the S.S. Drake." He pointed to Brittany. "This is Brittany, our botanist." She nodded to Olimar, not really knowing what to say. "And this is Alph, our engineer," Alph was lastly introduced.

"It's nice to meet you, Captain Olimar," Alph greeted the older man. "And thank _you_ for saving us."

"Anyway," Olimar seemed to want to move on. "As thanks for saving me, I'll give you this treasure I found," he finally put down the pikmin and handed over the cosmic-drive key they had been searching for since they landed.

"It's the cosmic-drive key!" Alph exclaimed happily. "Now we can get home!"

"We can give you a ride to Hocotate, if you'd like, since it's on our way home to Koppai," Charlie offered Olimar, who didn't have a ship after it crashed in the Garden of Hope.

"I'd appreciate that," Olimar seemed to really appreciate the offer. It was possible he was planning on asking for a ride, anyway. "Also…" he considered how to put his question. "My subordinate, Louie, came here with me, but we got separated a while back. Have you…?"

"Oh, yeah, we found him back in the Garden of Hope!" Alph interrupted him before he had time to finish the question. "He's aboard our ship."

"That's good," Olimar sighed in relief, glad his friend was alright, before remembering what Louie was like, especially with strangers. "I… hope he didn't try to hog all your food or something. He has a habit of doing that."

"Actually, that's pretty much exactly what he did," Brittany confessed, "He ran off with all our food, so we had to tie him up." She was still rather upset over the food getting stolen part. But she had calmed down a little bit from before, at least.

"Well, I apologize for him," Olimar said, managing to look sheepish, understanding and apologetic at the same time. The injured pikmin seemed to not like being ignored, and squeaked at Olimar, while tugging on his sleeve. "Don't worry, I'll take care of you soon," he told it patiently, but picked it back up anyway.

The small exchange seemed somewhat strange to Alph and Brittany, who were also feeling a little guilty, as they had never thought pikmin would be able to understand speech.

"This is all fine and good," Charlie interrupted them suddenly. "But maybe we can continue this somewhere else?"

"Right, let's get going," Alph agreed. They all boarded the ship, and shot up into the sky, the pikmin and their onion following closely behind.

 **A/N: I actually had to play the game again, because there were some things I had completely forgotten!**

 **I do think Olimar would be at least somewhat better at handling the pikmin, considering this is, what, his fourth visit to this planet? It shows here, and maybe in the future as well.**

 **I'm not the only person who can't get over Olimar's super deep voice, am I?**

 **I don't know how a red pikmin would do on the ship, but if purples and whites can be aboard a ship, why not a red?**

 **Also, I'm not really sure how to write Charlie, so he's going to be quietly sitting on the side-lines for quite a bit. Sorry.**

 **This thing was originally supposed to be two chapters, but I have started on the next chapter, and it's becoming really long, I'm thinking about splitting it in two.**


	2. Chapter 2

**So, I eventually decided to divide the second chapter into two, making the whole story three chapters (I hope...). Hope this doesn't bother anyone. Anyway, enjoy!**

 **And leave a comment if you have the time!**

Aboard the Drake

As soon as the group of four plus one pikmin entered the ship and took of their helmets, the first thing Olimar did was to put down the injured leaf, patted it on the head and told it to stay put. Then he went over to where his fellow Hocotatian was sitting on the floor, still tied up.

"Louie?" he asked carefully, trying to assess his mood. Louie, who hadn't noticed them come aboard, jumped at Olimar's voice, before recognizing him. He didn't say anything, but perked up quite a bit, clearly relieved to see Olimar.

"It's good to see you're okay," Olimar continued talking to him, noticing Louie didn't seem to be angry at him, for now at least. He paused to think for a moment, before starting with untying his friend.

As soon as Louie's hands were free, he grabbed Olimar's sleeve and held on, like he was afraid the older Hocotatian would disappear if he let go. Olimar's gaze softened as he looked at Louie. He placed his free hand on top of Louie's comfortingly.

"I'm sorry I left you before," he admitted quietly, smiling sadly. "I guess I got a bit carried away with the whole treasure-gathering, eh?" He managed to pull Louie to his feet, still holding on to him. He gestured toward the Koppaiates, who were over at the controls of the ship yet also sneaking peeks at the two Hocotatians, not quite knowing what to make of them. "They're going to give us a lift home to Hocotate, so be nice, okay?"

Louie looked over at the Koppaiates, who all looked away in an attempt to not get caught listening, then back at Olimar, before nodding slightly.

"Good," Olimar patted Louie on the shoulder, before extracting himself from his grip. Next, he waved over the red pikmin, who hurried over to him as fast as the small legs could carry. "Now for you," he talked to it reassuringly and gently as he handled it. The ripped leaf on its head was the first thing he checked. "I think this should take care of itself if we get some nectar into you," he mused. He looked at its leg next. The injury was nothing severe, just some bruising, which should heal on its own with some time. "You'll be fine," he finally told it. "We'll get you back to your friends tomorrow."

The Pikmin squeaked in thanks, and ran off to explore the ship. It seemed very excited at being aboard a ship for the first time in its life. But even though it seemed rather curious about everything, it didn't touch anything. And it never went too far from Olimar. Apparently it had decided Olimar was someone to be associated with safety.

"We're going to the Tropical Wilds tomorrow," Charlie informed them. The Koppaiates seemed to be finished with whatever they were doing at the ship's controls.

"There's still a few pieces of fruit left, and we need to get as much as possible to save Koppai," Brittany was very determined to not leave any fruit behind.

"And we get to properly say goodbye to the Pikmin," Alph chimed in, still working on something at the controls. "I hope they'll be okay without us." He seemed quite worried about them, and how they would manage on their own.

"I'm sure they'll be fine," Charlie sounded far more confident than Alph. "After all, they have learned teamwork from us, so they can surely take on anything that threatens them!"

"That's true," Alph admitted, already looking better. Maybe the Pikmin would be okay even after they left.

"By the way," Charlie turned to Olimar and Louie. "There isn't a lot of space on this ship, so you'll have to share sleeping space," he explained apologetically.

"That's fine," Olimar assured him. "It's okay. Besides, this ship has much more space than the one we came with."

"That mustn't have been very much space," Alph said, finally coming over to join the others.

"Well, it wasn't much of a ship either," Olimar shrugged. "One of the reasons I came back here was so I could get enough treasure to get back my beloved S.S. Dolphin."

"Back here?" Brittany's curiosity finally won over her reserved nature when it came to these Hocotatians. "How many times have you been here?"

"Hmmm…" Olimar took a few moments to think. "This is my fourth time here," he finally announced. "The first time was an accident, as I crashed when I was supposed to be on vacation. The second time I came here with Louie to gather treasure because the company we work for, Hocotate Freight, was in heavy debt." After saying this, he went quiet for a few moments, as though remembering something bad.

"When we were supposed to leave, Louie somehow got left behind. I came back with the president of Hocotate Freight, so we could fetch Louie, and because the president wanted to get more treasure." He shrugged slightly at the Koppaiates' baffled expressions before continuing. "And now we're back here, partially because the company is in debt, again, and partially because I want to buy back my ship."

"That's amazing!" Alph was very impressed by Olimar and how he had managed to handle the dangers of PNF 404 so many times. "So that's why you're so good at handling the Pikmin." The way Olimar had handled the different Pikmin in the fight against the mysterious golden lifeform had been very impressive. Especially considering he had just woken up from his spacesuits force-sleep mode and was still rather disoriented.

"I suppose…" Olimar seemed somewhat embarrassed by the praise. "Though there were a couple of new types of Pikmin I have not come across before," he admitted.

"Do you mean the rock and the winged types?" Alph asked, remembering the Hocotatian had seemed somewhat confused when he first saw them.

"Yes, those," Olimar confirmed. "But I'm not really surprised," he continued. "Pikmin evolve to the environment, and we've never been to this part of the planet."

"So, these Pikmin only live on this part of the planet, and there are different kinds of Pikmin in other areas?" Brittany concluded.

"Yes, though reds, yellows and blues seem to be found everywhere," Olimar continued.

"So, they survive especially well in different environments?" Alph guessed.

"That's possible," Olimar concluded. "And -" he was interrupted by Brittany.

"I'm sure you can compare your notes about the Pikmin tomorrow," she said impatiently. "But how about we eat now?"

"Yes!" Charlie agreed with Brittany. "It's been a long day and we all deserve our juice!" He looked over at Olimar. "Especially with how long that creature kept you captive."

"Oh, I suppose it's been a while since I had food," Olimar had completely forgotten about his hunger with everything happening, from the fight to reuniting with Louie to meeting the Koppaiates.

Louie had not been paying much attention to what was going on, preferring to stay on the side and observe the red Pikmin. But at the mention of food, he perked up immediately and the Koppaiates had his undivided attention. Olimar didn't fail to notice this.

"Seems like Louie agrees with you," he chuckled, making said person as well as Brittany look away in a huff.

"All he ever does is eat," Brittany complained, making Louie glare at her. "Of course he'd be interested."

"How about we get the juice?" Alph hurried to stop what was going on to avoid a fight. Brittany could be so easily provoked when it came to food. Even though she was kind of right about this and Louie was a bit of a glutton.

"Yeah, right," Brittany, as predicted, dropped the subject and went to get a juice canister.

The juice was evenly distributed between the five of them. Or supposedly distributed evenly. Brittany was the one dividing it, and Alph had a suspicion she put just a little bit more in her own glass. Personally, he thought Olimar should maybe have needed a little extra, considering how long he'd been without food. He also noticed Olimar eyeing the juice, as if wondering how they would survive on some juice.

"It's not very substantial," he told the Hocotatian. "But it's very nutritious." This seemed to reassure Olimar, as he relaxed and nodded to Alph in thanks.

After the juice had been given to everyone, they sat down around the small tabled to drink it. Brittany and Louie immediately gulped down theirs in seconds. Charlie took a little longer, but his was gone soon as well. Alph took his time, sipping it and savouring the taste. Olimar, who wasn't really sure what the juice was or how it tasted, tasted it carefully savouring the flavour.

"What do you think?" Brittany had noticed Olimar not really being familiar with the fruit-juice.

"Oh," it took Olimar a few seconds to notice she was talking to him. "It has an interesting flavour." He swivelled the drink around in the glass before drinking it all up in one go. "Not bad," he smiled slightly at Brittany.

"Yeah, it's pretty good, right?" She was warming up to Olimar somewhat. Maybe this Hocotatian wasn't like Louie, who stole their food, and who Brittany would still very much like to slap silly for doing so. "There are lots of different fruit on this planet, and mixing them gives some pretty interesting flavours."

"And it's really nice to not have to eat the same thing every day," Alph added, having finally finished his juice as well.

"And Brittany makes the most excellent tasting juice!" Charlie proclaimed, trying to get on Brittany's good side.

"Well, it's not like it's difficult to mix fruit," she more or less brushed him off.

"But understanding how different flavours do to each other and how they best fit together is." Olimar pointed out, making Brittany look over at him in surprise and Louie with something like jealousy.

"I didn't know you knew about cooking," Brittany expressed her surprise, making Olimar just smile slightly and shrug.

"I don't, not really. But Louie is a chef, and I've learned some things from him."

"Hmm…" Finding out the blond Hocotatian was a chef was a surprise to Brittany, and even a little impressive, not that she'd admit it to anyone. Ever. So, she just nodded in understanding, moving on with things.

She then went over to the control panel and pulled up the map over the Tropical Wilds. "Since we're all here and we've eaten, we might as well make plans for tomorrow." She marked out three points on the map. "Here's where the last pieces of fruit are, and retrieving them is our main goal tomorrow."

"I would like to go check on our crashed ship," Olimar said. "I think there might be some salvageable things and some data files to collect."

"There's a piece of fruit not far from where your ship crashed," Brittany noticed, as she looked over where the remains of Olimar and Louie's ship was. "You can bring that while you're in the area." It wasn't even a question, that much was apparent from her tone and the look she gave the Hocotatian.

"That shouldn't be a problem," Olimar replied. "I'll just take Louie with me, maybe we'll get the job done faster if there's two of us."

Louie, who was once again deep in his own thoughts and not really paying attention, looked over at the mention of his name. He didn't say anything, just looked over and then away again.

The red leaf Olimar had saved earlier ran over to him and climbed on his lap, squeaking excitedly while looking at him with its big eyes.

"You want to come with me tomorrow, eh?" he asked it, and smiled when it nodded its head vigorously, making the lead on its head to flop wildly all over the place. "All right, then," he calmed it down slightly by patting it on the head.

"All right," Brittany nodded, turning back to the map. "The two other fruits are pretty close to each other, but we'll still need to split up to get both effectively." The two were indeed close to each other, but there was a wall separating them, so they would indeed have to split up to get both without wasting time.

"In that case," Charlie attempted to take charge of the situation, being the captain and all. "Brittany and I will go get the fruit near the waterfall, and Alph will get the one in that small cave."

"All right," Alph agreed to the captain's plan. He suspected Charlie didn't really like caves after being eaten by that monster in a cave almost immediately after coming to the planet. "But we should probably get some sleep now, so we won't be tired tomorrow."

"Right, I was just about to suggest that," Charlie said. He then turned to Olimar and continued. "Alph will show you where you guys can sleep, so just follow him." He then turned around and left for sleep himself. Because he was captain, he got the biggest room, not that it had much room for anything besides a mattress, but still.

Brittany also left, with a quiet "Good night" to the others. The rooms of the crew members were smaller than the captain's, but not by much. Soon Alph was left alone with the Hocotatians.

"This way," he pointed them to the small room next to his own. The ship was designed for four people, so Olimar and Louie would have to share a room, but it was still better than nothing. He stayed long enough for the two to familiarize themselves with the room before speaking up again. "There's unfortunately no clock in this room, so I'll come wake you up in the morning, if that's okay?"

"Thank you," Olimar told him. He was sitting on the mattress, the pikmin next to him. Louie was standing to the side, not really paying attention to anything beyond a glance at Alph when he started talking.

"Okay, um… Goodnight then!" Alph left the room quickly, barely hearing Olimar's reply, going to his own to get some sleep.

The first thing he did was get rid of his spacesuit. Sleeping in it would be very uncomfortable, so they always took them of for the night. Underneath he was wearing a long-sleeved blue shirt that read "Engineer" on the back. A gift from his grandfather. He laid down on the mattress, pulling the covers over himself. Tomorrow would be the last day on PNF 404, before they went back to Koppai, and save the planet.

Maybe he would also get to know Olimar a little better. The Hocotatian captain intrigued him, even though he found Louie somewhat strange and unnerving.

Leaving the planet would also mean saying goodbye to the pikmin. Maybe they could come back someday? He had a feeling tomorrow would be really something special, both good and probably somewhat sad.

Feeling extremely fatigued all of sudden, he turned to his side, falling asleep almost immediately.

 **A/N: So, not a lot really happens in this chapter, but I still decided to make the last day on the planet its own chapter. We'll se how things play out.**


	3. Chapter 3

**So, here's chapter 3. And the story is still not finished, there will be a chapter 4. I was writing this chapter, and noticed it was getting a bit long, and I wasn't even halfway done with it. Hopefully that next chapter will be the last.**

 **Anyway, enjoy. And leave a comment if you have time.**

The last day on the planet

Early the next morning Alph stood outside the room they had given Olimar and Louie. He was, for some reason, feeling somewhat nervous, even though he had no real reason to be. But, he had to wake them for the day, so he steeled himself and knocked on the door.

Just a couple of seconds later it opened, and Alph found himself face to face with Louie. Or rather, face to chest. Geez, he'd almost forgotten how tall the blond Hocotatian was. Though Alph was no stranger to people being taller than him, since he was pretty short, it still took him off guard. Louie was about as tall as Brittany, and she was the tallest person Alph knew! The Hocotatian was wearing an obviously hand-knitted, dark green sweater and baggy, black pants.

"…" Louie raised an eyebrow, staring at Alph with an unreadable expression, making him realize he'd been just standing there for a good several seconds.

"Um…" he started, not really knowing how to talk to Louie. "We're meeting up at the main room in about half an hour before going down to the planet," he eventually managed.

Louie didn't say anything in response, just nodded curtly before shutting the door. Alph managed to glimpse the inside of the room, seeing Olimar bundled up under a blanket with only a turf of hair and the tips of his pointed ears sticking out at the top. The red pikmin was sitting at his feet, looking curiously over at Alph. That was all he saw before the door shut.

"Okay…" Alph wasn't really sure, but he assumed it meant Louie would wake Olimar and meet them at the main room, so he headed there himself.

Brittany and Charlie were already waiting, somewhat tired and trying to wake themselves up. Brittany was doing some stretching while Charlie settled for splashing some cold water on his face. They both looked over at Alph as he entered the room.

"Are they coming?" Charlie asked him, referring to the Hocotatians.

"I think they should be here soon," Alph replied, going to get some water for himself. He sure hoped he had read Louie correctly, or he'd probably have to go try again. Luckily, he didn't have to, because Olimar and Louie chose that moment to enter the room, pikmin in tow.

"Morning…" Olimar mumbled, obviously still half asleep. His already surprisingly deep voice was even deeper in the morning. Apparently, he wasn't much of a morning person, Alph thought, as Olimar helped himself to a glass of water. He was wearing a knitted dark red sweater that looked much like Louie's, like they were made by the same person.

Olimar may have been half asleep, but didn't fail to notice Alph's eyes going between him and Louie, probably noticing the matching sweaters. It had actually been a gift from Louie's grandmother, given to him sometime after visiting Louie for the first time after the whole fiasco with the carrots, and the debt and everything else. The old lady had been so happy when Louie brought Olimar to visit, claiming the boy had never had a friend before. Sometime later he had been gifted the sweater.

"How soon are we landing?" Olimar asked, looking over the others. Louie had produced his own glass of water and the red pikmin was trying to hop up to reach the counter, curious as to what everyone was getting from up there. Olimar picked up the pikmin with one hand and set it on the counter, presenting it with its own glass of water, despite knowing it probably wouldn't need it or understand it. True enough, it just stared curiously at the glass, turning it around in its hands. Eventually it poured out the water and placed the glass on its head, upside-down. He took the glass from it and placed it in the sink.

"About fifteen minutes," Brittany informed him. "Better get your spacesuits on," she pointed out, looking at his and Louie's worn sweaters. She, Alph and Charlie were already fully dressed and ready to go.

"Yeah, you're right," he admitted. As he turned to leave to get his spacesuit, he waved Louie with him, since the he also needed to get his on. They were done in ten minutes, or so.

"It looks like we're all ready to go," Charlie announced after everyone had gathered in the main room again. "Alph, land the Drake!"

"Yes, Captain!" And soon they've landed in the Tropical Wilds, with all its water and greenery.

Olimar was holding on to the red pikmin, carrying it until they were out of the ship, at which point he put it down on the ground. It immediately ran over to the onion, squeaking excitedly, hopping around a bit, and waiting for its friends to be called out.

There was at first some debate on how many pikmin they needed and how many of each type. In the end they settled on twenty reds (including the one they had on the ship), fifteen blues, fifteen rocks, thirty wings, and twenty yellows. A hundred pikmin total.

They divided themselves into the groups they had planned the day before. Olimar took ten reds, five wings, five blues, five rocks and ten yellows. As he was starting to leave, he looked over to Louie to make sure he was following, only to notice the blond staring of in another direction, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"What is it, Louie?" he asked. Louie shrugged and pointed of in the direction he was staring. "There's something else you want to explore?" He got a slight nod in response. It was a good thing he'd learned to understand Louie's unspoken language by now, letting him understand what he wanted. "All right, then." It would do no good to force Louie with him, if he didn't want to come. "But at least take a few pikmin with you." Louie looked over to him, shrugged and took five of Olimar's reds with him before disappearing somewhere in the foliage.

"Looks like a change of plans," Olimar told the Hocotatians, who had been watching the exchange in silence.

"I suppose one of us will accompany Captain Olimar and the other two handle the other two fruits on their own," Charlie suggested.

"I can go with Captain Olimar," Alph volunteered.

"Then I will go to the waterfall, and Charlie goes to the cave," Brittany decided.

"Right," Charlie muttered. "That's what I was just going to say."

That decided, Charlie and Brittany split the remaining pikmin between them. Charlie took the remaining five reds and ten wings, while Brittany took fifteen wings. The blues, rocks and yellows were divided evenly, five each. Then they all set of toward their destinations.

"What is it Louie wanted to do on his own?" Alph soon asked Olimar, somewhat curious, and even a little worried over the tall Hocotatian. He didn't like Louie, but still didn't want him to be hurt, or anything.

"I don't really know," Olimar replied truthfully. "He works well alone and sometimes likes to do his own things without having anyone interfere. Maybe he found something edible he wants to try out in a new recipe. Don't worry about him," he reassured Alph as he noticed the young Koppaiates looking somewhat nervous. "He's pretty good at staying away from dangerous creatures."

"If you say so…" Alph tried not to be so doubtful, after all, Olimar knew Louie a lot better than he did. "You know him better than I."

"I know Louie can be a bit difficult," Olimar said, turning to Alph. "It took me a while to get used to him." Hearing that came as somewhat of a surprise to Alph. Olimar had seemed to understand Louie perfectly fine, at least from what he'd seen.

"Really?" he asked, having trouble believing it. "Because he doesn't talk much?"

"Yes," Olimar confirmed. "At first it was strange and even a bit irritating, but after a while I came to appreciate his quiet nature." He didn't seem like he was going to elaborate on that, but after a few moments he added "Trust me, Louie is just as awkward with other people, as other people are with him. He also jumps to the worst possible conclusion very quickly."

"So, when he ran of with all our food…" Alph was starting to get it now.

"It's possible he thought you were kidnapping him and tried to escape," Olimar finished for him. Then shrugged. "But even I don't know what he's thinking."

"Okay," Alph took a few minutes to think about things. Brittany had been so certain Louie stole their food because he was a thieving thief who stole things because he was a thief. Maybe he really just got scared and ran of because of that. What would Alph had done if he suddenly woke up on a strange ship with people he'd never met before?

"I still think Brittany kind of wants to slap him for stealing our food," he ended up saying. "And the Captain isn't too happy his rubber ducky was stolen." Olimar shrugged and smiled apologetically, but didn't say anything. Well, it wasn't like Olimar was responsible of what Louie did. They walked in silence for a few moments before Alph couldn't help adding, "It's a good thing he didn't drink any of the juice, or Brittany would have actually slapped him."

"She's a tough woman, eh?" Olimar didn't even look back. "Not afraid to say what's on her mind?"

"Yeah," Alph had to almost jog to keep up with Olimar. "She's great."

They kept walking in almost complete silence, the pikmin behind them in a mixed group of all different kinds mixing in together. Sometimes one or two of them noticed something interesting that caught their attention, making them separate from the others. In these cases, Olimar was quick to whistle them back so they wouldn't get left behind. He seemed to be keeping a constant eye on all of the pikmin, obviously used to this kind of behaviour. Usually he had whistled the pikmin back before Alph had even noticed they had strayed from the group.

Alph knew the pikmin sometimes wondered of when they saw something interesting, but even he'd not been here long enough to react so quickly.

After several more minutes of walking, they finally reached the place Olimar and Louie's ship had crashed, atop the giant tree-stump. The place was almost completely different from the last time he had been there, and Alph could almost not believe it was the same place. The corpse of the Quaggled Mireclops they had fought was still there, but now covered in moss, flowers and other greenery. The formerly muddy ground around it was starting to get more solid, though there were still puddles of really wet mud here and there, and grass was starting to grow there as well. Even the remains of the crashed ship was slowly being taken over by nature, vines reaching for it from the ground and the rocks. It would be only a matter of time before the whole place would be just another part of the area, with no hint that anything had taken place.

"What is it?" Olimar asked, having noticed Alph stopped and seemed to be in his own thoughts.

"This looks so different from the last time we were here," Alph answered. "It's a lot nicer-looking now."

"Well, there's my ship," Olimar walked over to the remains of the crashed ship, starting to look over it for salvageable parts. The ship was clearly an older model. In other words, pretty small, cheap and not really much of anything.

"It's... really trashed by the crash," Alph noted unnecessarily. He wasn't sure if it would be okay to critique the ship in front of Olimar.

"It's okay to say as it is," Olimar turned to him from up on the hill where he was checking over the ship. "It was a piece of trash, even before the crash." He talked while tossing over some parts he deemed salvageable, before moving to the inside of the ship, to see if there was any data left. Alph looked over at the pikmin to make sure they were okay, before joining Olimar on the ship, to see if there was something he could help with.

The pikmin had been dismissed and were playing around in the mud and around the corpse of the Mireclops. Only the one red with the chipped leaf stayed close to Alph, looking at him curiously. Oh, yeah, they were supposed to get it some nectar, weren't they? He patted it on the head absentmindedly, before telling it to go with the other pikmin.

"Are you finding anything useful?" Alph asked Olimar, who was digging through some things on the inside of the ship.

"Some," came the answer. "But a lot was destroyed, and a lot is completely worthless." Olimar straightened up, holding some parts he had gathered. "These are probably some of the best things we're going to find here."

"Those are..." Alph recognized the parts, but it took him some time to remember what they were called. The last time he had seen that kind of parts on a ship was several years ago. "Those are Azorta Z8 types, aren't they? I haven't seen those in use in years."

"You seem to know quite a bit about spaceships," Olimar commented, sounding like he wasn't expecting Alph to know something like that.

"Oh, I'm an engineer. I learned from my grandfather," Alph explained, while looking over some things on the ship. It seemed somewhat old and hadn't been in the best shape even before the crash. "He actually designed our ship. It was even named after him. His name is Drake."

"And now you're using the ship he designed to save your planet, eh?" Olimar seemed impressed with the idea. "Your grandfather will undoubtedly be very proud of you. And I'm sure you keep the ship in tip top shape?"

"Well, I try at least," Alph felt somewhat embarrassed by the whole thing, and a bit proud of himself, too, when Olimar said he would make his grandfather proud. He really wanted that, and had been wanting it since his grandfather helped him with his first engineering project. They continued taking the ship apart in relative silence for the next few minutes. The only things to be heard were the sounds they made tossing the metal parts aside, and from the pikmin playing outside.

"Hmmm…" Alph looked over to Olimar at the thoughtful and somewhat irritated grumbling.

"What is it?" Alph asked, not really sure if he wanted to know what irritated the Hocotatian Captain.

"It seems many of my data files have gone missing," Olimar answered, sounding a bit irritated still, but trying to tone it down for Alph, so he would know Olimar wasn't upset with him. "I suppose it's not really that big a deal, but it would be good to not have to re-write them. I could miss some important details I might've forgotten."

"Oh, we found those!" Alph suddenly remembered. He had been meaning to inform Olimar of the fact, but forgotten about it until the Hocotatian mentioned it. At Alph's exclamation, Olimar poked his head out of the ship in surprise.

"You did?" he asked, sounding surprised and almost shocked, clearly not expecting Alph to know what he was talking about.

"Yeah, we found a whole bunch of data files all over the planet," Alph explained, somewhat relieved Olimar didn't seem so irritated anymore. "They were really helpful to us, when we were exploring. It was also good to have some idea on how to handle the creatures on the planet," he added, wanting Olimar to understand his notes had been very important to them. "I can send them to you, if you like?"

"Yes, thank you," Olimar was very relieved at having his notes back. There were some new enemies here he hadn't encountered on his previous visits to the planet, and having the notes was very good. He would add them to his notes of the other enemies, so if anyone came to the planet again, they would be able to handle themselves. He was kind of hoping others wouldn't have to come here for any reason.

"All right, all done," Alph informed him after a few minutes. When Olimar checked his data, he noticed all his lost notes were now returned.

"Thank you," he said. "This seems to be everything I had written," he told Alph, who was just glad he'd been able to help Olimar.

"We should probably get going back soon," Olimar said, looking up at the sky. "About a quarter of the day is over, and we need to get these parts and that fruit to your ship." The fruit in question was over on the other side of the corpse of the Mireclops. That, as well as the ship parts, would require most of their pikmin to get them back to the Drake.

"Yeah," Alph agreed, but made no motion of going anywhere. Instead he just sat down next to the crashed ship and just looked at the playing pikmin. "They seem to have a lot of fun, huh?"

They did indeed seem to have a lot of fun, enjoying the muddy and rocky terrain. The blues moved effortlessly through the mud, probably because mud contained water, while the rocks seemed to have some trouble every now and then. The wings weren't interested in going in the mud, but seemed to enjoy themselves all the same. The reds and yellows were taking turns tossing mud at each other and taking cover behind the rocks. They all seemed to have the time of their lives.

"They do indeed," Olimar agreed with Alph, sitting down next to him. "While they're very focused and dedicated while 'on duty' so to speak, they can be quite childlike as well," Olimar kept explaining after Alph nodded in understanding. "They enjoy playing around, and they're very curious." As if on cue, some of the yellows started digging their way to underneath the Mireclops corpse, no doubt wondering what was underneath it. Soon several other pikmin had joined them as well.

"And like children, they easily get in trouble by not paying attention to their surroundings." Olimar continued, while carefully observing the pikmin in case something happened. "That's why we must keep an eye on both them and our surroundings, in case something happens."

"Right," Alph agreed. "It took us a little time to learn that, though," he then admitted. "And we've lost several pikmin because we weren't paying enough attention to them."

"It's always sad when pikmin are lost," Olimar said quietly, looking at Alph with understanding. "But it's important to learn from mistakes. I made the same mistakes on my first time here," he admitted. Then shook his head, as if getting rid of the negativity. "But, anyway, why don't you tell me a little about these new pikmin types?" he asked, indicating to the wings and the rocks. As if on cue, a curious wing flew up to them, seemingly inspecting Olimar curiously before landing on his hand.

"Well," Alph started, somewhat hesitantly, not really knowing what he should say about the pikmin. "The wings fly, as you can see," he pointed to the few wings hovering over the digging pikmin. "But they're not very strong fighters, so they're better at carrying things." He paused, wondering if there was anything else he should point out about the wings, before deciding to move on. "The rocks can easily break crystal and glass, and they can't be crushed."

"They also don't seem to be too good at digging," Olimar observed, looking at where the rocks were mostly just standing around. A couple were apparently trying to dig by rolling in the mud, but mostly just managed to get themselves covered in it. He then looked back at the wing on his hand and petted it on the head briefly, before it flew away to join the others.

"Right," Alph agreed. Then he looked over at Olimar to ask something he had been somewhat curious about. "You said you'd encountered other types of pikmin on your other visits. Could you tell about those?"

"I guess I could," Olimar said thoughtfully, before shifting slightly to get more comfortable. "We found white and purple pikmin, as well as -" he was suddenly interrupted by the pikmin squeaking in fear and running out from under the Mireclops's corpse, running around in panic. From the tunnel they had dug emerged a very irritated bulborb.

 **A/N: Cliff-hanger ending! Ha-ha! (Or, attempted at least) One more chapter to go!**

 **I actually went and checked the heights of the characters. According to Pikmin wiki, Brittany is the tallest of the bunch, at 2.3cm. Louie is second at 2.1cm. Olimar and Charlie are both 1.9cm, and little Alph is the shortest at 1.6cm. I guess to him at least, Brittany and Louie would appear to be very tall individuals.**

 **Olimar seems to be a bit of a jack-of-all-trades, doesn't he? I mean, he's a family man, a captain, an explorer, a mechanic** _ **and**_ **a biologist. That's pretty impressive.**

 **I also wanted to give the pikmin some personality, and watching the short movies was a good way to do so. They're so darn cute!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Final chapter, guys! Let's go!**

 **Thanks for all the reviews, everyone! For those who are wondering, I will write more Pikmin. It will probably take a little while, but it will happen!**

Leaving the planet

The bulborb had apparently been sleeping in some kind of mud-cave, and the pikmin had woken it with their digging. Said pikmin were currently running in circles around the bulborb in panic. Luckily, this prevented it from eating them, as it could not focus on just one of them. However, that would not last long.

Olimar was quick to jump up on his feet, and a sharp whistle called the pikmin to his side. They quickly rushed toward Olimar and Alph. The bulborb was right behind them. Somehow, the red leaf was the first pikmin to reach Olimar. He quickly grabbed it and tossed it at the bulborb's eyes, just managing to stop it from eating a nearby yellow. The rest of the pikmin soon came to their place at his side. He nodded to Alph, before splitting up the pikmin and taking the reds, blues and half of the yellows with him.

Alph quickly caught on Olimar's plan and whistled the remaining pikmin to his side. The two split up, taking on the bulborb from both sides, so it would have more difficult focusing on just one target. Hopefully they would manage to take it out without losing any pikmin.

The bulborb was already very close to them, so Alph quickly moved to the side to avoid it, pikmin following his movements, not wanting to get eaten either. The red leaf that had been distracting the bulborb had lost its grip and fallen down, but it quickly made its way to Olimar's side before the bulborb got it.

Olimar was now right behind the bulborb, and started tossing the pikmin up on its back, where they started whacking it. As soon as it turned to Olimar, trying to both get to him, the pikmin, as well as shake of the pikmin currently on its back, Olimar threw his remaining pikmin at its eyes. Alph took his turn in tossing pikmin on the bulborb's back.

The bulborb roared in pain, trying to toss the pikmin of its back. Several of them fell down on the ground in front of it, and there was some frantic whistling to save all of them. Alph grabbed at the rocks and tossed them at the head of the bulborb, hoping to at least give it a headache, if nothing else.

The rocks hit the bulborb on the head, then plinked of, landing at its feet. There they started running in circles, and somehow, they ended up in the wet mud, where they had trouble moving. The bulborb had noticed this, too, and started moving toward them. Alph tried to warn Olimar, but he had already noticed what was going on and tossed some blue pikmin into the mud to help the rocks. Meanwhile Alph decided to try stalling the bulborb by having the wings go straight for its eyes.

Soon the blues had managed to help the rocks out of the mud, and all of them hurried over to Alph. He and Olimar then focused all their pikmin on the bulborb, which seemed to be quite weak already and, true enough, soon it lay dead on the ground.

"We got it," Olimar sighed and sat down on a small rock, staring at the bulborb corpse. Some of the pikmin were standing on top of it, doing some kind of victory-pose, apparently back in their more playful mode.

"Yeah," Alph agreed. "I wasn't really expecting that thing to be sleeping under there." He tried to peer into the tunnel the bulborb had come from. "I wonder if it has a nest or something under there?"

"Might be," Olimar agreed. "We could bring a few pikmin along to explore it," he suggested, hoping there might be something worthwhile in there, and also hoping there weren't any more bulborbs.

"Let's do it," Alph agreed. "We still have some time before we have to head back."

They decided to bring the reds and the blues along. The rest of the pikmin they left outside, hoping they would not get themselves in trouble. The mud cave was not very long, but it wasn't very large, even though the bulborb had fit through. It ended in a small cavern, inside a hollow in the corpse of the Mireclops. Inside, there wasn't a whole lot. No dwarf bulborbs or anything like that, thankfully. There was some nectar, maybe the bulborb had gathered it for some reason. At least they got the little red leaf to finally become a flower. There was also a large emerald gem. Olimar was very happy with this find.

"This could be worth quite a bit," he said as he examined it closer. "Maybe I'll now be able to get back my ship!" He sounded very excited at the thought. Alph figured anyone would be happy if they could get back their lost ship.

"Let's take it with us, then," he suggested. They should have enough pikmin to get everything back. "We should get going back soon, so the others won't have to worry."

"Yes, let's go," Olimar agreed. He set the blues to carry the gem out, and the reds followed them in a neat line.

When they exited the small cavern, they noticed the other pikmin had stayed nice and out of trouble (though they were all covered in mud.)

"Should we let the pikmin bring along the bulborb as well?" Alph wondered, looking over at the thing.

"Maybe we could," Olimar agreed. "Which pikmin type do you have the least of? Maybe we could let them have it?"

"I think we have least blues," Alph concluded after looking over the pikmin-numbers. "They were the last ones we found, so we didn't have a lot of time to sprout that many of them." He looked back at the pikmin numbers. "Brittany really likes the wings and sprouted a whole bunch, so we have the most of those. We also have quite a bit of the others as well."

"Blues it is, then," Olimar concluded, and whistled over the blues to carry the bulborb. They had the wings carry the fruit and then they and the remaining pikmin grabbed the parts from Olimar's crashed ship, and started the walk back to the Drake.

When they arrived, Brittany, Charlie and Louie were all there already, waiting for them to return. Brittany was looking somewhat impatient, having probably finished her job first and had nothing else to do but sit around and wait for everyone else. Charlie seemed to be trying to herd some rocks, who were apparently trying to go into the water, despite not being able to swim. Louie was just sitting on the ground, surrounded by the five reds he brought with him. He was in the possession of some plant and herbs. And he had taken down a dwarf bulborb, which he also had brought back to the ship, and was in the process of cutting up. Definitely planning dinner, then, Olimar thought.

"Hey," Alph greeted his shipmates when they had gotten close enough.

"You guys sure took your time," Brittany told him, still somewhat irritated, but slightly less than earlier. "We were just wondering if we'd have to come get you."

"I apologize," Olimar said. "Something came up and we also ran into this bulborb, as you can see." He gestured to the bulborb being carried by the blues.

"Well, we seem to be ready to leave now," Charlie said. "And just in time, it's starting to get late." It was indeed getting dark, as the sun was setting below the horizon.

"And say goodbye to the pikmin..." Brittany added sadly. She wondered if they would ever see the little guys again.

"But we must get back home to Koppai, to save everyone!" Charlie declared. "Everyone's relying on us!"

"Right," Alph agreed with Charlie, before turning to Brittany. "I'm sure we can come back here to visit sometime." It would be interesting to see how the pikmin managed without them, all on their own.

While the Koppaiates were discussing amongst themselves, Olimar went over to check on Louie.

"You alright?" he asked quietly. Louie glanced at him, nodded once, and went back to cutting up the meat. "Did you get everything you wanted?" This time, Louie took a few moments to think, before nodding again. "Finish up quickly, I think we're just about ready to leave." Another nod, and after just a few seconds, Louie pushed aside the majority of the dead dwarf bulborb and picked up the few pieces of meat he cut out, and the plants and herbs. He was now ready to leave. Good. Olimar nodded at him before turning his attention to the bunch of pikmin behind him.

There were mainly reds, with a few yellows and blues. One of the reds had six petals on the flower on its head, rather than the usual five, and Olimar immediately recognized it as the injured leaf from before. He bent down and patted it on the head. It squeaked happily and grabbed his hand with its tiny arms. He gently shook it off, putting it down on the ground.

"It's time to say goodbye," he told them. Though they didn't really understand what he was saying, he had picked up the habit of talking to the pikmin back when he crashed on the planet. Most of the pikmin backed off a little, except for the one, which walked up closer to him and held up its arms, as if wanting to be picked up. He patted it on the head again, but then steered it away from him, toward the other pikmin.

"Sorry," he told it, when it looked back at him with sad eyes. "I can't take you with me. You have to stay here, and take care of the other pikmin." It blinked at him, but eventually nodded and backed off to join the other pikmin.

"Are we ready to leave now?" Charlie asked everyone after a few moments. It seemed like everyone had said goodbye to the pikmin and taken one last look at the planet.

"Let's go! Back to Koppai!" Brittany declared, already on her way to the ship. Everyone else followed her example.

When they got aboard the ship, they first flew it up into the atmosphere, before putting in the Cosmic Drive Key and starting their journey back home.

"We're now 19 hours from Hocotate," Alph informed Olimar after the cosmic drive was engaged. "We're dropping you of there, before going on to Koppai."

"Thank you," Olimar replied, taking of his helmet and space-suit. Louie had already done that, and then relocated to the kitchen, which he had claimed for himself for tonight. Alph looked at Olimar thoughtfully, before asking.

"Could you now tell about those other pikmin-types you discovered?" He was very curious about these pikmin he didn't know about. How many types of pikmin were there on this planet? More than any of them had discovered?

"Yes, I suppose I could," Olimar said, sitting down at the table to think a bit. Alph sat down opposite of him, waiting for the Hocotatian to talk. Charlie was also siting nearby, as curious about these pikmin as anyone else, but currently doing his duty as captain and was filling some reports about the planet and their adventures.

Brittany was also standing nearby. She was also very curious about these other pikmin-types. Was any of them as cute as the wings? Could they survive different elements than the reds, yellows and blues? She very much wanted to listen to what Olimar told about the pikmin, but she also wanted to keep an eye on Louie. The Hocotatian claimed to be a great chef, but she still didn't completely trust him. Not when he was also handling the fruit they found earlier that day.

"Well," Olimar started. "There were the white pikmin, the purple pikmin as well as the parasitic bulbmin." He drank some water, considering how he should describe each of the pikmin types. "The whites were smaller than other pikmin and had red eyes, and they were much faster. They were also more short-tempered." He chuckled at some memory of the pikmin, before continuing. "They were immune to poison, as well as being poisonous themselves. And they were able to see objects that were buried underground."

"They had x-ray vision?" Alph asked in wonder. That sounded amazing. He tried to visualize some small white pikmin with red eyes, that could see through things and threw temper tantrums every now and then. The image was somewhat amusing.

"Yes," Olimar confirmed. "It came in handy on several occasions." He leaned back in his chair to get more comfortable, almost falling over in the process, before he continued. "The purple pikmin were quite the opposite of the whites. They were larger and heavier than other pikmin, and also slower. However, they were also very strong, more powerful than the reds."

"Stronger than the reds?!" They must have been very strong, since the reds were already quite a bit stronger than the other pikmin. Alph could hardly imagine it.

"Yes, but they were also much slower than any other type of pikmin, so we had to constantly make sure they weren't left behind. They seemed to be rather laid back, and had a much milder temper than the whites."

"I wonder why we never came across these pikmin," Alph wondered out loud. He, at least, would have loved to meet these pikmin Olimar was describing.

"We could only get them via Candy Pop Buds, that we only found in a few select caves underground," Olimar explained. "They had no onion of their own."

"Oh," Alph understood. There hadn't been underground caves in the places they had explored. But... there was still one thing left. "What about that last type of pikmin?" Parasitic...? Was that what Olimar had called them?

"Yes, the bulbmin," Olimar remembered. "They were a parasitic type of pikmin that took over the bodies of other creatures, usually bulborbs. The young ones would follow us as any pikmin would. They were immune to all elements, but they were only found in underground caves and seemed unable to leave them. Perhaps they can't survive above ground for some reason."

"Wow," Alph thought the bulbmin sounded really cool, but also kind of scary. Just the thought of a parasite taking over another's body, making them do whatever it wanted. The thought made him shudder.

Brittany had been listening to the entire conversation and had to admit these pikmin types Captain Olimar and Louie had encountered sounded pretty amazing. The white pikmin sounded like they could be really cute. Not as cute as the wings, of course, but still. But she was very glad they never came across the parasite pikmin. They sounded creepy. Now the pikmin talk seemed to be over and the two were currently discussing some engineering mumbo-jumbo, she decided to stop listening to them. She decided to take the time to refine her fruit files. They needed some more information and detailed report, anyway.

"Looks like dinner is ready," she suddenly heard Olimar say, making her look up from her KopPad. Indeed, Louie was standing there with a pot full of food. There were a couple of other plates of food on the counter. They were all carried to the table, as was some plates and eating utensils. They all seated around the small table, Louie at Olimar's side, Alph at the end of the table and on Olimar's other side. Charlie was opposite of Olimar and next to Alph, while Brittany was on Charlie's other side, opposite of Louie.

"Let's eat!" Everyone grabbed some food to their plates, the Koppaiates more carefully, not knowing if Louie really was a good chef or not. The meal seemed to consist of marinated steak, with a sauce and some fruit and local plants and herbs making up sides, a purée and salad. Olimar and Louie were happily eating it, but the Koppaiates hesitated a bit. Brittany was the first to try it.

"How is it?" Alph asked. He wanted the food to taste good, but he didn't know if the Hocotatians' had a very different taste for food, and something good to them might not be good to Koppaiates. Brittany took a few minutes to properly taste the food, before deciding how she liked it.

"It's..." both Alph and Charlie were looking at her, wanting to hear her judgment. "Actually pretty good," she eventually admitted, eyes widening in surprise. The meat was tender and well-seasoned, it practically melted in her mouth. The fruit was equally well cooked, with just the right amount of juiciness and taste. Even though she didn't really like Louie, she had to admit he had great taste in food.

Alph and Charlie now had the courage to dig into their own dinner, discovering Brittany had made quite the understatement saying it was pretty good. It was amazingly good. "This really is good," Charlie said, helping himself to a bit more sauce.

Louie tried to not look too proud at the praise, but the look Olimar gave him said he wasn't very successful.

Most of the dinner went pretty well. Brittany and Louie seemed to be having some kind of unspoken competition over who could eat more food. They were both glaring at each other while shoving food into their mouths. There was something Brittany was wondering about...

"Hey, Captain Olimar?" she asked him carefully, trying to figure out how to phrase her question.

"Yes?" Olimar looked at her with polite curiosity.

"I thought Hocotatians are vegetarians...?" she held up a piece of stake in her fork, the unasked question being "so why are you eating meat?" Alph and Charlie looked at them with curiosity, wondering the same thing.

"Well," Olimar laughed a bit, smoothing down his hair, taking a few moments to answer. "We are, mostly." At the Koppaiates questioning expressions, he elaborated. "When you're stuck on an alien planet, you can't really be fussy with what you eat."

"But why do you still eat it now that there are other options?" Alph asked carefully, not wanting to offend anyone. It didn't seem like he did, since Olimar just smiled and shrugged.

"Louie is a great chef, so it's difficult to not eat whatever he makes, regardless of what it contains." This time Louie actually blushed, and even turning his head away couldn't hide the tips of his pointy ears, also flushed.

"Oh, okay." Brittany seemed to accept this answer and carried on eating. She went to grab the last piece of fruit (a Sunseed berry). Only Louie was reaching for it as well.

And the two were trying to stare the other to give in and give up the fruit. The three others sighed in unison, expecting this to go on for some time. Both Brittany and Louie were very serious when it came to food, especially good food, and neither one would be giving up any time soon. After just a few minutes of the staring contest, Olimar decided to intervene.

"Louie, behave," he told the blond Hocotatian, tugging at his sleeve. Louie looked from the fruit to Olimar, back to the fruit, to Brittany, then back to Olimar, before looking down, letting Brittany have the fruit. Olimar in turn pushed his Sunseed berry from his plate to Louie's, making the blond perk up a bit.

Soon after that near disaster, dinner was soon finished. The plates were put away, and everyone could relax with their own tasks. Alph and Olimar had resumed their conversation about ships and engines, Louie was writing down something that presumably had to do with food, Brittany was working on her fruit-reports and Charlie was continuing with the documenting of their journey to PNF-404.

After some time, Olimar started doing some notes on what he remembered about the rock and winged pikmin. Every now and then he asked Alph for his opinion on things he didn't know. Together, they put together a fairly decent summary of the two types of pikmin. The notes included things like:

"The winged pikmin seem to possibly be of some relation to the white pikmin. Both have special compound eyes, allowing them to see in several directions at the same time. Since the wings are somewhat lacking in attack strength, they seem more suited to transport things. Their unique ability to fly allows them to go above most enemies, avoiding combat altogether."

"The rock pikmin possess durable, hard bodies. They are unable of being crushed, making them ideal for fighting against things like wollywogs, who can only kill pikmin by crushing them. Their hard bodies make them able to easily break through things like glass and even crystal. They also do quite a bit of damage to enemies when thrown on top of them. In addition to their rock-like bodies, they also seem to possess strangely rock-like brains."

A few hours later, everyone was getting tired, Louie dozing on Olimar's left shoulder, and Alph on his right shoulder, making him sigh lightly, before suggesting they all headed to bed now. (Charlie had tried to move in next to Brittany to get her to snooze against his shoulder. He did not succeed, and she almost fell on her face instead.) The Drake's auto-pilot would take them safely to Hocotate, and wake them up shortly before arrival. After that, the Koppaiates would journey back to their home planet, their mission a success.

 **A/N: That fight-scene wasn't much of anything, but then again, fight-scenes aren't really my thing.**

 **I also wanted to give Olimar some treasure, so he could maybe get back his precious ship. Hopefully that works out for him.**

 **I don't know how far Koppai is from Hocotate, or how long it takes to travel from there to PNF-404, or how long it takes to get from the planet to Hocotate. So, I just made up something.**

 **I also let Louie make dinner. I don't know if everyone would actually eat meat, but now they do. I'm also no food expert, so I don't really know what Louie made, or if it even would be good, or edible.**


End file.
